Grant Awarded for Study That Potentially Links Arsenic to Allergies, Asthma
Contact: Julie Gosse, (207) 581-4833; Aimee Dolloff, (207) 581-3777
Millions of people worldwide drink water on a daily basis that contains high levels of arsenic, including millions here in the United States who obtain their water from unregulated, contaminated, private wells. Additionally, high levels of arsenic contaminate many foods as well as industrial and mining waste sites.
But is there a connection between arsenic consumption and allergy and asthma symptoms?
In search of an answer, Julie Gosse, University of Maine assistant professor of biochemistry, has been awarded $30,000 by the PhRMA Foundation for her research proposal on the topic.
“If I make reasonable progress, I will receive another $30,000 in the second year of the project,” says Gosse.
Recent studies regarding the prevalence of the disease suggest that arsenic exposure elevates asthma incidence, but the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms that potentially trigger the symptoms are unknown.
The most common form of asthma is allergic asthma, and mast cells, which play a key role in the inflammatory process, are major effector cells in allergies and asthma. Mast cells also are important immune defense cells in the body, charged with fighting parasitic infections.
“Our studies will determine whether arsenic affects the function of mast cells, using a variety of biochemical, molecular, and cellular techniques,” says Gosse. “Also, we will seek to determine the underlying molecular mechanisms of these effects.”
If arsenic is found to enhance degranulation (the release of histamine and other allergic/asthmatic mediators) from mast cells, this effect could be a be a mechanism by which arsenic elevates asthma incidence, says Gosse.
If research finds that arsenic hinders mast cell degranulation, this effect could reflect a type of immune suppression, which is a decreased ability to fight off parasitic infections, caused by arsenic exposure.
Several UMaine students also are involved in the project.
Lee Hutchinson, a first-year UMaine graduate student, is working on his master’s degree out of Gosse’s laboratory in Hitchner Hall. He is the lead graduate student working on the project, and is joined by graduate student Christopher Preziosi.
Other students include Hannah Nelson, Jonathan Pelletier, Benett Trinh, James Lyons, and Elizabeth Brochu, who all are current or former biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology undergraduate students.
Once this phase of research is completed, and if Gosse determines a link, she then will communicate the results with regulators, and attempt to determine the molecular mechanisms underlying the process.